Hawkes's Virginie is a series of interwoven erotic tableaux, very deliberate, intensely artificial, conceived as he says in a reverie on de Sade…. In each, an 11-year-old Virginie, little sister of the master of ceremonies, plays the part of accomplice, voyeuse and narrator. And though one narrative is heraldic and archaic, while the other is slatternly and burlesque, Virginie's constant presence draws them into a single focus.
The point being, for Hawkes, that speculations on the art of pleasure can only take place via an 'innocent consciousness,' one that banishes time past and future, and concentrates with ruthless single-mindedness on the present moment. His characters are subsumed into their roles, and become actors in lust's timeless allegory: big brother, little sister, the five women who exchange and combine the aspects of female sexuality (Colère, Bel Esprit, Volupté, Finesse, Magie), and—in the background, waiting to pounce on her erring son and daughter, and demolish the pleasure-pavilions—formidable Maman, who represents marriage, procreation, time's vengeance….
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